Sacha Gervasi

Journalist-turned-filmmaker Sacha Gervasi rose to international acclaim with the humorous and inspiring documentary "Anvil! The Story of Anvil!" (2008) and surpassed Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese...
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Geri Halliwell is dating a millionaire energy drink tycoon, according to a U.K report. The former Spice Girls star has been linked to Red Bull boss Christian Horner after they were spotted walking arm-in-arm near her home in north London.
Horner recently split from his long-term partner, according to Britain's The Sun newspaper.
Halliwell reportedly ended her relationship with online betting tycoon Anton Kaszubowski last year (13). She has previously been linked to singer Robbie Williams and she has a seven-year-old daughter, Bluebell, with screenwriter Sacha Gervasi.

Director Sacha Gervasi's planned biopic about tragic Fantasy Island star Herve Villechaize is a bittersweet project for the filmmaker because it is based on a lengthy interview he conducted with the actor a week before his death. Fellow dwarf star Peter Dinklage, who is developing the film with Gervasi and is slated to play Villechaize, reveals his moviemaker friend was dispatched to chat with the actor for a magazine article, and came away from the experience sure he had just spoken to a tortured soul.
Dinklage tells Playboy magazine, "He (Villechaize) was quite outrageous. My friend, the movie director Sacha Gervasi, has been working on the script for a while, basing it on an interview with Herve he did when he was a journalist.
"At one point Herve pulled a knife on Sacha. He was like a pirate, an incredible character. Herve killed himself about a week later, so Sacha realised the interview was probably a suicide note.
"It's a terribly sad tale, but there's something fun about getting into the skin of a guy like that, pretending to be him for a few months."
Villechaize, who also appeared in Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun, died in 1993, aged 50.

Anyone who’s seen Peter Dinklage act, or even heard him speak in that withering baritone of his, knows he is awesome. But the Game of Thrones actor seems to have mastered the Playboy Q&amp;A as well as he’s mastered playing a dwarf nobleman with a nutso royal family and a soft spot for prostitutes. Here, just five of the many wonderful tidbits his interview reveals — but you should read the whole thing:
1. He does not enjoy swordplay. "There's a scene in the show when I chop a man's leg off from behind. The gentleman was probably about 70 years old. They filmed him from the back, so you don't see how old he is. Also he's an amputee. He had one leg, so basically I just knocked out the fake leg. I had a big dull sword, and I knocked a wooden leg off an amputee who was 70 years old. So to answer your question, no, I don't feel like a badass. The fight scenes are all a big lie. The whole time, you're trying not to get hit in the eye with a sword, and you wish you had on a welding helmet."
2. He does not, in fact, "get so much pussy," despite a video on YouTube speculating that he does. "By ‘pussy’ do they mean actual pussy? Or is it a metaphor, like for gardening? Because if that's the case, then yes, I've been doing a lot of gardening lately. If they mean sex, they might be getting me confused with somebody else. But if pussy means wearing old-man sweaters and watering my herb garden, then absolutely, I'm getting so much pussy."
3. He does not see himself as a sex symbol, nor even believe others do. "Honestly, I think there's an irony in all of this. I take it with a grain of salt. They'll say, ‘Oh, he's sexy,’ but women still go for guys who are six-foot-two. It's nice that people are thinking outside the box, but I don't believe any of it for a minute." [Editor’s note: He is sexy.]
4. He’s developing a biopic of Fantasy Island star Hervé Villechaize as a possible role for himself. "We're very different personalities. He had a desire that was definitely thwarted by the world, but I'm fascinated by him. He was quite outrageous. My friend, the movie director Sacha Gervasi, has been working on the script for a while, basing it on an interview with Hervé he did when he was a journalist. A magazine hired him to do a puff piece, but they ended up talking for hours. At one point Hervé pulled a knife on Sacha. He was like a pirate, an incredible character. Hervé killed himself about a week later, so Sacha realized the interview was actually a suicide note. It's a terribly sad tale, but there's something fun about getting into the skin of a guy like that, pretending to be him for a few months."
5. He and his brother did puppet shows for their neighborhood in New Jersey. "We basically did little puppet musicals with the loudest songs we could find. We did a puppet version of Quadrophenia, the Who album. We made drum kits out of tuna fish cans. It was fun. We would have haunted houses too. My brother, who's a violinist now, was the real ham, the real performer of the family. His passion for the violin is the only thing that kept him from being an actor."
Hollywood.com correspondent Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is the author of Sexy Feminism and Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted, a history of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, due out in May. Visit her online at JenniferKArmstrong.com.
Follow Jennifer on Twitter @jmkarmstrong
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It is appropriate that Scarlett Johansson, one of the stars of the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, seems to be the muse of the film's director Sacha Gervasi. After all, it was Janet Leigh (whom Johansson portrays in this movie) who earned such a stature in the eyes of Alfred Hitchcock himself back during the development of the classic Psycho.
RELATED: Scarlett Johansson on How She Captured the Essence of Janet Leigh
The below featurette from the Hitchcock Blu-ray, chronicles Gervasi's affinity for his central player Johansson. "I've never met a woman of that age who is that self-possessed," Gervasi states in the video. Johansson herself chimes in on the creation of the biopic, honing in on her admiration for Leigh, calling her "unusual for her time," and "such a grounded woman."
Check out the video below, and catch Hitchcock on Blu-ray Mar. 12.
Follow Michael Arbeiter on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter
[Photo Credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures]
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It was perplexing enough when the world decided to give one biopic to software engineer/documented oddball John McAfee. But perplexing enough just isn't perplexing enough: The Hollywood Reporter has linked Warner Bros. to a second developing film about the antivirus mogul and his various legal troubles throughout South America. News broke on Monday that the studio could be funding a cinematic project based on a Wired article ("John McAfee's Last Stand") about McAfee's alleged criminal activity. All this on top of December's announcement that McAfee would play the focal character in Running in the Background: The True Story of John McAfee, a film by Impact Future Media, to whom McAfee himself sold his life rights.
That's right, two John McAfee movies. The major studio exploit and the independent project with questionable objectivity, as it always goes. See, the dueling biopics phenomenon is not one unique to the case of McAfee. Recent years have seen competing forces vie for the presentation of a shared subject's life story — a couple of instances are even in the works presently. Is there always a clear winner to the showdown, or are we left torn between contrasting portraits of great figures? Take a gander at what we think:
John McAfee
The Studio Movie: John McAfee's Last Stand adaptation (no official title)
Source Material: Wired article "John McAfee's Last Stand"
Creative Forces: Unknown
The Independent Film: Running in the Background: The True Story of John McAfee
Source Material: McAfee's life rights
Creative Forces: Unknown
The Champion: Yet to be determined, although we can bet that the latter, which McAfee himself is at least marginally involved on a production level, might be a little skewed away from objectivity... which could, actually, be quite interesting.
Alfred Hitchcock
The Studio Movie: Hitchcock
Source Material: Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello
Creative Forces: Director Sacha Gervasi; stars Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, and Scarlett Johansson
The HBO Film: The Girl
Source Material: Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies by Donald Spoto
Creative Forces: Director Julian Jarrold; stars Toby Jones and Sienna Miller
The Champion: The Girl is a far superior, more intricate and compelling film to the bland Hollywood output
Steve Jobs
The Studio Movie: Steve Jobs
Source Material: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (authorized biography)
Creative Forces: Writer Aaron Sorkin
The Independent Film: jOBS
Source Material: Unknown
Creative Forces: Director Joshua Michael Stern; stars Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad
The Champion: As much as we like Gad in costume as the Woz, we have to bet on the Sorkin power for this one.
Linda Lovelace
The Sundance Premiere: Lovelace
Source Material: Unknown
Creative Forces: Directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman; stars Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, and Sharon Stone
The Muddling-in-Oblivion Machination: Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story
Source Material: Unknown
Creative Forces: Director/writer Matthew Wilder; stars Malin Akerman, Matt Dillon, and Harold Perrineau
The Champion: Another TBD, but Sundance provides us with some very favorable thoughts about the former.
And one from the archives...
Truman Capote
The Studio Movie: Capote
Source Material: Capote by Gerald Clarke
Creative Forces: Director Bennett Miller; stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Clifton Collins, Jr.
The Independent(ish) Film: Infamous
Source Material: Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Careerby George Plimpton
Creative Forces: Director/writer Douglas McGrath; Toby Jones (again!), Sandra Bullock, and Daniel Craig
The Champion: The Oscars were right on this one: Miller and Hoffman's rendition of the story was a dazzling feat — while Infamous, too, is a film worth your while, it doesn't quite live up to the spectacle that a character like Truman Capote deserves

At the core of many powerful films is a very simple concept, driving the motives and tribulations of all that transpires onscreen. A common theme that might be defined as the core of several of this year's most prolific pictures is fear. Such a versatile motif finds its way into the hearts of a wide variety of movies, ranging from the imaginative spectacle that is Ang Lee's big screen adaptation of Life of Pi to David O. Russell's on-edge romantic dramedy Silver Linings Playbook to the hardest hitting of the year's cinematic contributions, namely Zero Dark Thirty, from filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow.
In all of these movies and several more of the year's best — including Ben Affleck's Argo, Tom Hooper's Les Miserables, and Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock — we can find fear manifesting a daunting, albeit driving, entity. The below exclusive clip of the latest Q&amp;A conducted for EPIX and LA Times' Envelope Screening Series gathers each of these directors to touch upon the element of fear, a conversation provoked by Lee, in his or her film. Whether or not this base human emotion is more a charging force than its primal colleague love is an issue into which the auteurs sink their hungry teeth.
Additionally, the filmmakers delve into the challenges in and highlights of making their respective movies. Check out the video below to hear Affleck, Bigelow, Hooper, and the rest chime in about some of 2012's most memorable features.
Click here for a free 14-day trial of EPIX
[Photo Credit: Keith Bernstein/Warner Bros]
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Alfred Hitchcock is noted as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time and rightfully so — his body of work comprised of over 60 films is skillfully composed highly dramatic and eclectic from beginning to end. So pulling back the curtain on the legend in his own medium was only a matter of time a how'd-he-do-it biopic that could pay respects to the collected works while revealing the master's process. Hitchcock directed by Sacha Gervasi (Anvil: The Story of Anvil) pays its respects but also reveals another unexpected quality of the auteur's behind-the-scenes life: it wasn't all that dramatic.
Anthony Hopkins slides into the silhouette of the recognizable director and does a reasonable job nailing his cadence and posture. Side by side with his wife Alma (Helen Mirren) who as the movie reveals was the director's close collaborator Hitchcock strides confidently into the world of independent cinema for the first time balking at studio heads who demand something more audience-friendly than the gruesome Psycho. Investing his own money into the film Hitchcock risks everything to turn the story of murderer Ed Gein into a high art horror picture. He finds a leading lady in Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) a script in a screenwriter with mommy problems and a closeted actor to portray the sexually exploratory Gein.
And that's about it. Hitchcock disguises the usual stresses of moviemaking as major hurdles even representing Gein as a specter who haunts Hitchcock's every decision. Aside from the brief suspicion that Alma abandons him mid-production for charming writer Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston) which feels stuffed in and meandering rather than intrinsic to the making of Psycho there's little explanation for Hitchcock's anxiety and downward spiral. The film even dabbles in Hitch's well-known infatuation with his leading ladies — explored to a terrifying degree in last month's The Girl — but places the director on too high a pedestal to ever dig deep.
The real star of the show — and perhaps one who would have made a better subject for feature film — is Alma a complex second fiddle overshadowed by the greatness of Hitchcock. Mirren once again delivers a lively performance as a woman desperate to live her own life; the scene when she lets loose on Hitchcock is easily the high point of the movie. But like the audience who unknowingly appreciated her work behind-the-camera Hitchcock is too obsessed with the man at the center of it all to open up and give the character or Mirren the spotlight.
Hitchcock's time period flourishes and camera work are presented simply (Gervasi keeps hat tipping to the auteur's oeuvre to a minimum) while Danny Elfman whips up a score that riffs appropriately on longtime Hitchcock collaborator Bernhard Hermann's works. But there's no hook to elevate the film from a puff piece and even the biggest Alfred Hitchcock fan will be grasping for something more.

You would be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t know the name Alfred Hitchcock. There are a few classic directors whose legacies have lived on long after their passing, but few can match the renown of "The Master of Suspense" himself. After all, can John Ford or Billy Wilder be recognized by their silhouettes alone? Hitch’s films read like a list of the thriller genre’s greatest hits. Though his prolific output provides ample room for discussion, many consider his best film to be 1960’s Psycho. Whether you find yourself in agreement with this appraisal, it’s no surprise that the first big screen biopic of Hitch centers around the production of the seminal horror movie.
And yet while we all know the name Hitchcock, recognize his famous profile, and are at least acquainted with a number of his films, there is so much of the man’s life that falls far outside the domain of common knowledge. Sacha Gervasi’s biopic Hitchcock aims to help inject some of those tidbits of this great artist’s personal life and trials into the public consciousness. That being said, the biopic doesn’t exactly spoon-feed the audience with exposition so there can be a sense of being thrown into the deep end for those who don’t count themselves among the Hitchcock literati. So here are a few things you’ll probably want to know before you see the movie. At the very least, it will help you better distinguish between what is fact and what might be dramatic embellishment.
Norman Bates is Based on Ed Gein
When contemporary audiences view Psycho, they may be quick to note the tameness of the violence. This is of course a function of the fact that it was produced in 1960, but it is also ironic considering the story basis for the film. Psycho was based on Robert Bloch’s novel of the same name. Though a fictionalized novel, it was largely influenced by the deeds of real-life psychopath Ed Gein.
In the late 50s, Ed Gein killed two women in his Wisconsin town and dug up a number of other corpses to fashion morbid trophies from their body parts. These trophies adorned his home when police later raided it. Gein was said to have dug up middle-aged women who reminded him of his deceased mother, with whom he had been exceedingly close. Within minutes of Hitchcock’s opening, you’ll understand why this information is valuable. Interesting side note, Gein also served as the blueprint for Leatherface and Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.
Hitch’s Troubled Relationship with His Leading Ladies
Alfred Hitchcock, during the course of his career, had the great privilege to work with some of the most beautiful women in Hollywood history. Grace Kelly, Doris Day, Eva Marie Saint, and of course Psycho’s Janet Leigh. Though he may have preferred blondes, there has been much made of the fact that when it came to his relationship with his leading ladies, Hitch was no gentleman. He had a strange obsession with the glamour of starlets and was known to be rather rough and even cruel to them on set; conjectured to be an expression of his frustration at not being able to sleep with them.
One example of this involves Tippi Hedren, the star of Hitch’s The Birds as well as Marnie. Hedren has gone on record about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her director, noting that it seemed like he loved her except that most people don’t treat the people they love so badly. During the filming of The Birds, she was told repeatedly that her now iconic scene in the attic would involve only fake birds. It wasn’t until the day they were to shoot that scene that a crewmember let slip that the birds would be real. Hedren was beset by real birds, some of which were attached to her, for an entire week. While Hitch didn’t devise anything this malevolent for Janet Leigh, he did leave the prop corpse of Norman’s mother in her dressing room to get the right scream from her. This tendency toward obsession is important to understand going in, so that certain scenes in Hitchcock don’t feel awkwardly out of place.
The Studio Conflict
While Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most celebrated directors in the world by the time he started making movies in America, he was no stranger to having to battle studios and studio executives to accomplish his various visions. In 1940, David O. Selznick, the first American producer with whom he worked, re-edited Hitch’s Rebecca without his knowledge, and solely accepted the Oscar when the film won for Best Picture. This would be the only Academy Award Hitch would win until his lifetime achievement award in 1968. This rocky relationship with the studio system would persist well into his golden era.
Psycho became one of Hitch’s most acclaimed films as well as his most financially successful. But at the time, Paramount balked at Psycho’s content and its dark themes. They also expressed concern that Hitch was going too arty again, wanting to shoot in black-and-white, and were afraid of another financial flop like Vertigo. They didn’t want to produce it, and certainly did not want to finance it. It wasn’t until Hitch agreed to bankroll the movie himself that they agreed to at least distribute it, though they refused to let him shoot on the lot. The movie was instead filmed on the Universal backlot. Universal was only too happy to be back in the Hitchcock game. Since he had last made movies with them, they had been creatively stagnate and were deeply in debt. Keep this in mind when observing the various professional conflicts in the film.
The Importance of Alma
Though he was rumored to be obsessed with his leading ladies, there was no denying Hitch was thoroughly devoted to his wife Alma. She was not merely a loving companion and a source of inspiration, but also Hitch’s most important collaborator. At various points throughout his career, she was his screenwriter, his editor, and she also provided the final say on whether a proposed project was worthy of his time. In fact, if she didn’t like it a script that crossed Hitch’s desk, he didn’t bother moving forward with it. He revered her throughout their whole lives. When he was a young man, first working an entry-level job at a film studio in England, Alma was already established there and, because she held a higher position, Hitch considered it improper to speak to her. Her importance in his life is a central focus of the film.
Hitchcock Was Also a Master Showman
Though he would probably bristle at the comparison, Alfred Hitchcock was sort of the P.T. Barnum of the film world. The attraction he was selling was always himself. Even before he came over to the United States, marking his further meteoric rise, Hitch’s success in England prompted him to hire a team of people whose sole function was to promote Hitchcock; not just his films, but also the Hitchcock name. His marketing and theatrical stunts became the stuff of Hollywood lore. Spying the director’s inevitable cameo became part of the fun of seeing a new Hitchcock film. He also followed Walt Disney’s example and hosted his own television show: Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
For Psycho, he actually forced theater managers to disallow the admission of patrons who arrived late for fear that it would ruin the film’s frightening surprises. It was for this reason he also held no early screenings for the press; a risky gamble to be sure. He also recorded special radio advertisements and even sent manuals to theater owners explaining his gimmicks. Not only are these signature marketing tricks examined in Hitchcock, but Sir Anthony Hopkins, who plays Hitch in the film, actually appears in an ad running in theaters right now instructing audiences to turn off their cell phones. This meta approach would have made Hitch smile — to the extent that Hitch could smile, of course.
[Photo Credit: Fox Searchlight]
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The world premiere of Hitchcock took place Thursday night at the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, serving as the opening film of the AFI Film Festival. Before the screening, director Sacha Gervasi stood in front of a packed house — which quickly became choked up by the director's emotional display — speaking about the support Fox Searchlight gave the debut director. (Gervasi lovingly called Fox Searchlight “filmmakers disguised as a studio.”) It was a heartfelt moment that was followed by a video clip of Hitchcock co-stars Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren — who are currently in London working on only their second film together Red 2 — recounting their experience starring as the legendary director and his beloved wife Alma, respectively. The short video clip closed with Mirren thanking the audience for attending the screening and Hopkins, in his best Hitchcock impression, bidding the audience the classic, “Good evening.” The lights went down and the film began.
Hitchcock is a hugely entertaining and riveting account of the making of the classic horror film Psycho and the behind-the-scenes machinations of bringing the controversial film to the big screen in the early late 1950s/early '60s. However, the actual making of the film Psycho serves mostly as a fascinating backdrop for the film to explore the intricate, complex, and challenging relationship between the brilliant yet tortured genius Hitchcock and his adoring, equally brilliant and often neglected wife Alma. Based on the excellent book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello with a taut screenplay by John J. McLaughlin, the film perfectly captures the mood of the early '60s and the challenges of bringing the very controversial book Psycho by Robert Bloch — with its then very taboo themes of transvestitism, incest, and overt sexuality — to the big screen. Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid fame, in an interesting bit of casting, plays the neurotic Psycho screenwriter Joe Stefano.
Beyond the intrigue associated with simply getting the movie made (one example: Paramount studio boss Barney Balaban, played by Richard Portnow, so hated the idea of making the movie that he would not finance the picture), the film also explores the complicated relationship between “Hitch” and his beautiful female stars. Vera Miles (Jessica Biel) is singled out for poor treatment (and given a pretty thankless supporting role in Psycho) because she dared to chose having a child and family instead of allowing the director to “make her a star” when she declined the lead role in Vertigo (a role that went to Kim Novak). However, Janet Leigh, who is portrayed brilliantly by Scarlett Johansson (in a nuanced and striking performance), is presented as a woman who knows exactly how to handle the temperamental director and their relationship is perhaps the most perfectly uncomplicated in the film.
In the final analysis, it is the relationship between Alma and "Hitch” that holds the movie together; Hopkins is as brilliant as he’s ever been and creates an indelible portrait of the legendary director — he will certainly add this to his impressive list of iconic chracterizations. His mannerisms, voice and larger-than-life physical presence are manifested brilliantly in the transformation of the actor who perfectly channels the spirit, the essence and the well-known persona of Alfred Hitchcock, one of cinema’s most famous directors. Mirren’s performance is an absolute showstopper, with her quiet resolve and unwavering admiration for her husband’s talent simultaneously comingled with her feelings of disdain for his ill treatment of her and his lustful yearnings toward his beautiful young female stars. The essential beauty of Hitchcock is fully realized when the pair emotionally, romantically, and touchingly reconnect by putting their differences aside and work in earnest on the fledgling production together. Ultimately, Hitchcock presents a portrait of the truly deep love between Alma and Hitch tempered, tested and strengthened throughout the years and ultimately reinvigorated through their collaboration in making Psycho the massive financial, critical and cultural success it would become.
The highly anticipated biopic Hitchcock directed by Sacha Gervasi, features an all-star cast including Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock, Mirren as his wife Alma Reville, Johansson as actress Janet Leigh, James D’Arcy as actor Anthony Perkins, Biel as actress Vera Miles, Portnow as Paramount Studio boss Barney Balaban, Kurtwood Smith as the Director of The Production Code Administration, Michael Wincott as serial killer Ed Gein, Macchio as Psycho screenwriter Joe Stefano, and Michael Stuhlbarg as Lew Wasserman. The director of photography is the brilliant cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth (son of legendary “Blade Runner” DP Jordan Cronenweth) and the music score is courtesy of Danny Elfman. Producers include Ivan Reitman and Tom Pollack. A Fox Searchlight release.
[Image Credit: Suzanne Tenner/Fox Searchlight]
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"I'm married to a man obsessed with murder," says Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) in the trailer for Hitchcock, referring to her director husband Alfred (Anthony Hopkins). Hitchcock may not have been obsessed with straight-up murder, but as the first look of the biopic suggests, he was quite taken by murder movies. That, and scaring the crap out of the people around him.
Directed by Sacha Gervasi (Anvil: The Story of Anvil), Hitchcock chronicles the North by Northwest and The Bird director's bumpy, tumultuous road to the making of his classic horror film Psycho. Hitchcock put his life on the line for the film, mortgaging his house and risking his integrity in Hollywood to make a movie that butted heads with the convention of the times. As production moved along, he became more and more obsessed with making the movie on his own terms. Along with his strained marriage, Hitch also lost himself in the process, as evidenced by his willingness to come after actress Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) with a knife, just for the scare.
Gervasi has a twisted sense of humor, and it's on full display in Hitchcock. But is the film something more than a behind-the-scenes look at an infamous Hollywood production? Hitchcock contends with The Girl, a Hitchcock biopic that is airing on HBO later this month. The two take wildly different approaches: The Girl delving into Hitch's sexual predator nature, Hichcock portraying him as an artist under the pressures of the business. We were quite satisfied by The Girl, but if Hichcock varies enough in tone while still adding to the complex nature of its lead character, the two can easily stand side by side.
Hitchcock opens November 23, 2012 — prime real estate for Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren to mount Oscar campaigns. Watch the trailer below, then check out the trailer for Psycho, a unique spot that Hitchcock actually introduced personally. Compare and contrast the real Hitch and his big screen counterpart!
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Fox Searchlight]
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Summary

Journalist-turned-filmmaker Sacha Gervasi rose to international acclaim with the humorous and inspiring documentary "Anvil! The Story of Anvil!" (2008) and surpassed Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Ryan Murphy as the director of "Hitchcock" (2012), a dramatization of the making of "Psycho" (2012). The appointment surprised many in Hollywood, given Gervasi's limited film career, which encompassed scripts for the independent features "The Big Tease" (1999) and "Henry's Crime" (2010) and a single studio effort, Spielberg's "The Terminal" (2004). But the worldwide success of "Anvil" paved the way for Gervasi to move into the director's chair, which he won on "Hitchcock" by focusing the film on the complicated relationship between the director (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife and muse, Alma (Helen Mirren). The positive press afforded to the film indicated that Gervasi had made a successful transition from writer to director - an all-too-infrequent occurrence in the film industry.